QianlongCrisply and exquisitely carved with a decorative band around the body consisting of stylised archaistic scrolls divided by six shallow vertical flanges, three ending in an animal-head foot, the sides flanked by a pair of handles each formed as a stylised bird facing outwards with strongly-curving wings reaching back to the censer, the body ending in a bifurcated scroll, the cover similarly carved with a decorative band and flanges, beneath three elegant ram heads, each with long ears and a pair of twisted horns, all surmounted by the reticulated finial carved with a front-facing dragon grasping the flaming pearl amid cloud scrolls, wood stand.18cm wide. (3).

During the reign of the Emperor Qianlong, archaistic works of art and decorative styles were very widely available. The band of archaistic scrolls carved on the present lot is for instance an eighteenth century interpretation of the patterns and scrolls frequently cast on archaic bronze vessels from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770BC-221BC). Compare with the curved scrolls and long grooves forming the bodies of stylised dragons and other beasts on a fanghu from the Arthur M. Sackler Collection, in the Smithsonian Institution, illustrated by Jenny So, Eastern Zhou Ritual Bronzes from the Arther M. Sackler Collections, Volume III, New York, 1995, pp.226-227, pl.37. The notched flanges on the present incense burner are also based on flanges on earlier bronzes such as those found on a zun, 11th century BC, illustrated by Robert W. Bagley, Shang Ritual Bronzes in the Arthur M. Sackler Collections, Massachusetts, 1987, pp.292-295, pl.49.

The finely carved stylised phoenix handles are also taken from earlier bronze forms. Examples of Qianlong jade vessels with phoenix handles can be found in prestigious private collections; see for example a white jade ding, Qianlong period, in the Pine and Bamboo Hall Collection, illustrated in Virtuous Treasures, Chinese Jades for the Scholar's Table, Hong Kong, 2008, pp.56-57, pl.10. See also a white jade incense burner, Qianlong period, in the Songzhutang Collection, illustrated in The Splendour of Jade. The Songzhutang Collection of Jade, Hong Kong, 2011, pp.152-153, pl.126.

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